Adjustment Period
by BlackArrow317
Summary: One person's tragic ending can be another's unexpected beginning. AU after 2x14, no Isabel or Slade. Eventual Olicity.
1. Chapter 1

I'm not sure what this is or where this idea came from in the mess I fondly call my brain, but here we are. Let's hope it's not totally ridiculous, eh? Yeah, right. I'd give you a better summary than I've henceforth provided but I think you should be able to glean the gist of the plot or plot-like substance from this first chapter. That's my hope anyway. Let's get to it, shall we?

* * *

It was one of the worst crashes she'd seen in a long time. And as a police officer in a big city, Anna Morales had laid eyes a lot of them. Too many, really. Too many drunks and reckless drivers and just plain tragic accidents. Too many lives lost and ruined, often at the hands of booze-addled idiots who never deserved to make it out with hardly a scratch on them – while at the same time their victims' families were receiving a call or a visit they never expected.

Tonight was one of those nights. Officer Morales stood beside an overturned grey sedan on the side of the highway and watched with solemn resignation as Jimmy Davenport limped away in handcuffs and was shoved unceremoniously into a squad car by her partner Miles.

No matter how many times she'd seen it, she always had a hard time watching the victims get pulled from the destroyed vehicles. Paramedics had declared them DOA. A married couple this time – she could see their blood-spattered wedding rings glinting in the light of the streetlamps.

One of the paramedics handed her a clear plastic bag and Morales nodded gratefully. Inside were two wallets and two cell phones. She reached in to grab the man's wallet and flipped in open.

Notification was always the hardest part.

* * *

Officer Morales took the job of locating next of kin while her partner dealt with booking Davenport and cleaning up the rest of the scene.

The address listed on the driver's license was for a white rambler situated in a small neighborhood only a few miles from the site of the accident. Lights were on in the house when Morales pulled up. It was only 8:30 in the evening so that wasn't necessarily a surprise, but she wasn't sure who she was going to find inside, whose life she was going to irrevocably alter.

The faint sounds of the doorbell echoed back to her through the door as she stood on the front stoop. A minute later, the door swung open to reveal a short brunette of about eighteen, whose curious expression turned to one of concern when she fully registered Morales's badge and uniform.

"Hi," Morales said. "Do you live here?"

The girl frowned, gripping the doorknob tighter. "No. I'm just the babysitter."

Morales's heart dropped. Babysitter meant young child. She sighed inwardly. "I'm Officer Morales of the Tucson PD. May I come inside?"

Hesitantly, the girl asked, "Um, what is this about?"

"What's your name, hon?"

"Lexie."

Morales stepped forward. "Lexie, can I come in?"

Lexie finally nodded and moved aside to let Morales in before shutting the door and leading her to the kitchen.

"Did… Did something happen to Matt and Jennifer?"

"How old are you, Lexie?" Morales asked.

"I just turned eighteen."

Morales nodded and sighed, then continued, "Lexie, I'm really sorry to tell you this, but Matthew and Jennifer were killed in a car accident this evening. It was a drunk driver."

"Oh, my God," Lexie gasped.

Resting a gentle hand on her shoulder, Morales asked, "Where are the children?"

Lexie squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head, clearly trying not to cry. "Just one child. Ethan. He's in his room." She pointed down the hallway behind her. "God, he's only eleven."

"Will you show me to his room?"

Telling the boy was hard. When they'd entered the room, he'd been sprawled on his bed playing a handheld videogame – just a happy young boy who had no idea in that moment that his entire world was about to change.

After a few minutes spent sitting in silence after sending the babysitter home, Officer Morales sighed sadly and leaned forward in her chair.

"Ethan," she said, laying a gentle hand on his shoulder. The boy finally lifted his gaze from his lap. His blue eyes focused somewhere to the left of her own, not actually meeting hers – but it was a start. She took a breath and asked, "Do you know of any family nearby that you could stay with? Maybe an aunt or an uncle? Grandparents?"

Ethan bit down on his lower lip and shook his head. It broke her heart to see him trying so hard not to cry.

"Nobody?"

He shrugged, eyes falling back to the clasped hands in his lap. "I don't think so."

Morales sighed again. She was doing that a lot tonight. "Okay, Ethan. Can you pack a few days' worth of clothes? You can bring your game too, if you want." She looked to the end of the bed and spotted an empty backpack, grabbing it and setting it at his feet. "I'm going to have to take you back to the station with me, all right? Someone from Social Services will meet us there."

* * *

Kevin Lynch jumped and turned around as Officer Morales knocked on the wall of his cubicle.

"Mr. Lynch, I need you to do something for me."

Kevin nodded. "Anything."

Morales scuffed the toe of her boot on the floorboards. "You hear about the car crash on the highway?"

"Yeah, I did. It's sad how often that crap happens, y'know? Damn drunk drivers."

"Absolutely." She tapped the edge of the cubicle wall. "The couple left an eleven-year-old son behind," she told him, and dropped the parents' bagged IDs on his desk. "His name is Ethan, and I need you to check for any next of kin that might be willing to take him in. Please."

Fifteen minutes later she returned with coffee and a hopeful expression, but Kevin only shook his head apologetically.

"Come on, Kevin, find me something. I don't want to have to send another kid into the system if we can help it." Having spent a few years in the foster care system herself long ago, Morales knew how hard that life could be.

"I'm searching, Officer Morales, but… To be honest, it's not looking good. So far I've found that both paternal grandparents are deceased and the maternal grandparents are in a nursing home, not fit to care for _themselves_, much less a kid." He tapped a few keys and another window came up. "His mom is… _was_… an only child."

"And the father?"

Kevin sighed and gestured to the screen and Officer Morales leaned in to get a better look. At mug shots.

"One brother. Unfortunately, Paul here has been in prison since 2008 and he won't be getting out anytime soon. And I don't know about you, but I don't think a felon arrested for armed robbery would make the best guardian." He continued typing as he spoke and Officer Morales huffed out a frustrated breath.

"So that's it, then?" she asked.

The TPD computer tech nodded his head slowly, clicking through the various records and scanned documents on his screen. "Not even a distant cousin or… Hang on." He opened another window and brought up some kind of certificate. "Damn, I almost missed this. Looks like Matthew, the father, was married to another woman prior to the boy's mom. They divorced over twenty years ago and he remarried eight years later after moving here to Tucson from Las Vegas, Nevada. Her name is Donna, she kept his last name, and she still lives in Vegas. And here's the kicker," he looked over his shoulder, eyebrows raised, and continued, "They had a daughter, born 1988."

Morales focused on the screen, where a black and white birth certificate was displayed. "Which means Ethan has a half-sister."

"Yeah, and she's twenty-five. Plenty old enough to take guardianship."

"The boy didn't mention her. Does she still live in Las Vegas too?" Morales asked.

"Give me a minute." Kevin started typing again, bringing up yet more windows at a speed she could hardly keep up with. "Nope," he declared a minute later. "Felicity Smoak currently resides in Starling City, Washington."

* * *

So Felicity stated in one of her speeches to Oliver (when they were in the, for lack of a better term, backup lair) that she moved a thousand miles away from Vegas to live in Starling City, and since Star City in the comics is roughly equivalent to Seattle of the real world, I decided to situate it there for the purpose of my story. In my opinion, the atmosphere of Starling City on the show feels more Californian than Washingtonian, but hey, what do I know, right? Don't answer that. But basically any given city in California is somewhere less than 900 miles away from Las Vegas, Nevada so I suppose I'm trying to be as geographically realistic as possible here. Granted, I could be totally off and it could actually be set in some Midwestern state, but I feel like they'd be living in a coastal state. Or maybe I'm just crazy. I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think of this – whether it's worth continuing or not. I know there are a lot of great Arrow fics out there that are more interesting than this, but I don't know. The more, the merrier, yeah? Yeah… Okay, I'm done now. Thanks for reading!


	2. Chapter 2

"Kevin, can you find a phone number for Ms. Smoak?" Morales asked.

"She's not listed," Kevin replied. "I can give you a home address off her license and a place of employment, but I'm afraid if I do anymore digging, I'll be pushing my legal bounds. It's not like she's part of an investigation or anything. Technically, this isn't even our job. It's Social Services'."

Nodding in acquiescence, Morales said, "Place of employment should do, Kevin. Got a number for them?"

"Yep. Queen Consolidated." Kevin jotted down the number onscreen and passed her the sticky note. "Good luck."

Morales waved the sticky note and turned to leave. "Thanks."

* * *

She couldn't exactly call this late in the evening, so Morales stopped off at her desk to stick the note to the computer and grab her bag before tossing the rest of her lukewarm coffee and heading out.

On her way through the main lobby of the station, she spotted Ethan Smoak hunched over on a bench across the room and changed course. Making her way over to him, she noticed his forlorn gaze directed towards the social worker, Natalie, who had her phone pressed to her ear and a frustrated expression on her face.

"Hey, Ethan," she said, and took a seat next to him, mimicking his bent over position.

Something akin to surprise shone in his eyes as he turned to face her.

"Officer Morales." He bit his lip and looked away again, back towards Natalie. "What's going to happen to me?"

Morales wished more than anything that she had a guaranteed answer for the boy as she watched him run still-trembling fingers through his short blond hair. All she had was a half-sister who was more than likely estranged from this part of her family, judging by what little she knew of the situation. Morales felt a strong inkling that neither brother nor sister was even aware of the other's existence. And she couldn't very well give Ethan false hope by telling him. For all she knew, Felicity Smoak could be an awful person with no means whatsoever to care for a child she might not even want to know about in the first place, though Morales really hoped that was just her cynical side rearing its head.

Finally, she answered, just above a whisper, "I'm not sure."

* * *

Felicity Smoak was in a decidedly pleasant mood this morning, despite the fact that she was exiting the executive elevator at 7:30 am to do a job she was much too overqualified for. Honestly, if she'd wanted to be a secretary she would have stayed in Vegas and skipped MIT altogether. But she was mostly over the bitterness at this point. And it helped that she had Oliver bringing _her_ coffee in the mornings now and not the other way around.

A smile lit Felicity's face as she neared her desk and spotted the steaming to-go cup awaiting her there. Her heels clacked against the floor as she approached and she moved to drop her bag in the bottom drawer before taking a seat and then a careful sip, looking through the glass wall to meet Oliver's eyes and give him a small nod of thanks.

He smiled warmly for a second and then went back to whatever he was doing. Normally, he wouldn't arrive at QC for another half hour, but she knew he probably hadn't slept much – if at all – last night due to a mission that ran into the atrociously early morning hours, and she figured he'd just decided to come in early rather than attempt a futile battle with sleep.

Felicity quickly got to work confirming meetings and checking emails, gulping down her coffee as though unnecessarily scalding her throat might somehow allow the caffeine to enter her veins faster. An hour passed before the ringing of her desk phone pierced the relative silence and startled her out of a zone. She pressed a hand to her rapidly beating heart, wondering how she could work with the Arrow for this long and still be startled by a _phone_, then picked up on the second ring.

"Felicity Smoak."

"_Ms. Smoak?_" Felicity recognized the voice on the other end as belonging to the QC main line operator.

"Yes?" she responded.

"_I have a call for you from an Officer Morales_," the operator told her.

"Oh," said Felicity. "For me?"

"_Yes, Ms. Smoak, that's what she said._" Cristina the Operator wasn't exactly the most patient woman, either. "_Would you like to take the call?_"

"Uh," Felicity stammered, and then shook her head and replied, "Sure. Yes. Thank you."

_Officer_ Morales? It wasn't a name she knew. Felicity found herself wondering what a cop she'd never heard of could possibly want with her as she waited for the line to connect. It couldn't be about Arrow business, right? Lance would have alerted her.

The click in her ear stopped her thoughts running rampant and she listened as a woman's voice said, "_Hello? Felicity Smoak?_"

"Yes?" came Felicity's hesitant reply.

"_My name is Officer Anna Morales of the Tucson, Arizona Police Department_," the woman explained.

"Okay," said Felicity, still confused. "What is this about?"

There was a pause, and then, "_I'm sorry to have to tell you this, Ms. Smoak, but yesterday evening, your father Matthew Smoak and his wife were killed in a drunk driving accident here in Arizona._"

Felicity's breath hitched and she suddenly felt very cold despite the warmth emanating from QC's top of the line heating system. News of her father was the absolute last thing she expected from this phone call. She hadn't even known he was living in Arizona. The last time Felicity had looked into her father's whereabouts, she was thirteen and he was still in California, where he'd moved not long after leaving her and her mother in Vegas. When she'd turned fourteen, Felicity swore she would stop torturing herself by looking into the man who had abandoned her when she was only five years old. And she had. Except for that day at Moira Queen's rally a few months ago when she'd confessed to Oliver a little about her past, she had hardly spared a thought to Matthew Smoak since the day of her fourteenth birthday, when she'd deleted every file she had of him off her computer for good.

Through the high-pitched whine of hysteria in her head, Felicity faintly heard someone calling out her name. Actually two someones, she realized as she shook herself out of her stupor. At some point, Oliver must have noticed her reaction and become concerned, because she looked up to find him hovering in front of her desk, worry clouding his features. The other voice was in her ear, coming through the phone line, and that's what finally drew her back to reality.

"_Ms. Smoak, are you still there?_"

Felicity drew in a breath she thought sounded uncomfortably close to a gasp and replied, "Yes, I'm still here. Sorry." She glanced up again to meet Oliver's eyes and made a gesture to indicate that she'd explain when she was done.

"_It's all right. I understand this might be shocking news_," Officer Morales told her, sounding genuinely sorry, but all Felicity could think was _Why?_ Why should she care about her father's death when the man had clearly never cared about her? But that wasn't the kind of person Felicity Smoak was. No matter how much she wished it weren't true, she was affected by this news, and it made her upset. Especially when her brain caught up and she registered Officer Morales's words – "_your father Matthew Smoak and his wife_…" Wife. It made Felicity see red for a moment. To know now that she and her mother weren't enough to make him stay, that he could move on so easily and commit to another woman and another life.

Felicity decided she really could have gone without knowing any of this. She hadn't seen her father in over twenty years. So what right did this beat cop from Arizona have to call and upend her blissful state of ignorance toward the matter? If the Tucson police had been any good at their jobs, Felicity figured, they would have seen there was no reason to call.

"I'm sorry, Officer Morales, but my father walked out of my life over twenty years ago," she finally said, just wanting the conversation to be over with. She could see Oliver shift in perceptible shock from her peripheral vision when the topic of conversation became clear, but she didn't look up. "If it's all the same, I'd rather leave it at that. I'm sorry he's dead," _kind of_, she added silently, "But I don't want to have anything to do with funeral arrangements or anything of the sort. He's… part of my past, and I'd like to keep it that way."

The sigh that floated through the line sounded almost resigned, as though everything Felicity said had been expected, and it left her confused for a second until the officer started speaking.

"_I understand Ms. Smoak. And I figured as much._" Felicity frowned, listening to her words. "_I might not have even called, except…_" Another sigh. "_Except your father and his wife Jennifer had a son. Your… half-brother._"

Felicity nearly dropped the phone receiver. She felt like she was being blindsided from every angle. The most she could manage in response was a quiet "Oh."

"_His name is Ethan. He's only eleven, which is the reason I'm calling._" Felicity could sense the hesitation in the officer's voice, but she didn't interrupt. "_Ms. Smoak… You're virtually the only living next of kin with the capacity to take guardianship of this boy. I know this is sudden and probably incredibly shocking, but you're my last resort before Ethan Smoak has to be placed into the Arizona foster care system. I realize you'll need time to decide, so please take a day or two to think this through._" When Felicity remained silent, she continued, "_I'll give you my number, as well as the name and number of the social worker handling Ethan's case. When you've made a decision… Please give one of us a call._"

A minute later, Felicity set the phone gently back in its cradle. She stared dazedly at the notepad where she'd copied down the names and numbers until Oliver's hand reached out to cover hers, startling her.

"Sorry," he murmured.

Felicity shook her head as she met his eyes. Blue on blue. She forced a small smile of reassurance, but it was weak and she knew he could see right through it.

"Your father?" Oliver asked quietly.

Nodding, Felicity said, "Yeah. He… he was killed by a drunk driver last night. With his wife."

Oliver's eyebrows lifted at that last part, but he said nothing, letting her continue.

"Apparently my father remarried sometime after he left us." She sucked in a deep breath, attempting to steady herself. "He had another kid. When I was about fifteen… Oliver, I have a half-brother. An eleven-year-old half-brother with no family and a cop asking me if I want to take custody." Her breathing quickened, eyes widening as the reality of the situation started to take hold. "Oliver, I–"

"Felicity. Hey," he cut her off, lifting both his hands to grip her shoulders, grounding her and comforting her all at once as he began running them up and down her biceps. "It'll be okay. You'll figure this out."

Her responding smile was tentative and grateful. "Okay."

* * *

Thanks for reading! Below I've provided a basic timeline that might help clarify any questions you might have regarding Felicity and her father. Most of this will either be explained or you'll be able to determine it intuitively as the story goes on, but this is just a little something for those of you who like to have facts and background going in to help place the story in your mind. Also, right now for Team Arrow (including Roy and Sara) it's about mid to late April and as I stated in the summary there's no Slade/Isabel storyline to be dealt with, so it's just Arrow business as usual for them in addition to trying to keep the company running with Oliver as CEO, Moira running for mayor (Sebastian Blood still exists to run against her but thankfully he's not in cahoots with any super villains in this universe), and Thea still blissfully unaware of her true parentage. All right, well, that's about it for now. On with the timeline (all of which I have made up save for Felicity's birth year – the date is Emily Bett Rickards's birthday). And further thanks to anyone who reviewed, followed, and/or favorited.

July 24, 1988 – Felicity born, Matthew Smoak and Felicity's mother are 23

1993 – Matthew, 28, leaves Felicity, 5, and her mother and soon after moves to California

July 2002 – Felicity officially stops looking into her father's whereabouts

August 2002 – Matthew, 37, gets remarried to a pregnant Jennifer, 34, when Felicity is 14

March 2003 – Matthew, 38, and his new wife have a son, Ethan. Felicity not yet 15

April 2014 – Matthew, 49, and Jennifer, 46, die in a car accident, leaving behind Ethan, 11. Felicity not yet 26


End file.
